WHILE THE GENOMIC ERA HAS BEEN A REVOLUTION IN CROP SCIENCE, THERE REMAINS A CRITICAL GAP IN APPLICATION OF SEQUENCE DATA TO CROP IMPROVEMENT. FURTHERMORE, THERE IS A LACK OF SCIENTISTS TRAINED TO WORK WITH BOTH GENOMIC AND PHENOTYPIC DATA. UNPAK (UNDERGRADUATES PHENOTYPING ARABIDOPSIS KNOCKOUTS) ADDRESSES THIS CHALLENGE THROUGH LARGE SCALE PHENOTYPING OF SINGLE GENE MUTANTS IN THE MODEL PLANT ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA. WE TAP INTO AN EXISTING NETWORK OF 12 UNPAK INSTITUTIONS TO BRING 10 STUDENTS TOGETHER AT THE COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON FOR AN 8 WEEK RESIDENT RESEARCH INTERNSHIP, BOOKENDED BY ONLINE PRE- AND POST-RESIDENCY ACTIVITIES AND MENTORING. THE UNPAK INSTITUTIONS ENCOMPASS DIVERSE TYPES OF SCHOOLS, INCLUDING RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES, PRIMARILY UNDERGRADUATE INSTITUTIONS, HISTORICALLY BLACK AND HISPANIC-SERVING COLLEGES, AND COMMUNITY COLLEGES. EACH YEAR, MENTORS ACROSS UNPAK INSTITUTIONS WILL IDENTIFY POTENTIAL RESEARCH STUDENTS AND WILL ENCOURAGE THEM TO APPLY TO THE REEU. AS A COHORT,STUDENTS WILL PARTICIPATE IN A SHARED EXPERIMENT TO LEARN HOW TO PHENOTYPE PLANTS, HOW TO WORK WITH THE UNPAK DATABASE, AND HOW TO USE ONLINE GENOMIC TOOLS. EACH STUDENT WILL ALSO WORK WITH A MENTOR TO DEVELOP AN INDEPENDENT PROJECT WITH A PHENOMIC FOCUS. STUDENT TRAINING INCORPORATES GENOMIC ANALYSES, SCIENCE WRITING AND OTHER COMMUNICATION, DATA MANAGEMENT, ANALYSES AND VISUALIZATION IN THE R STATISTICAL PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT. POST-RESIDENCY, STUDENTS WILL PARTICIPATE IN PREPARING A JOINT MANUSCRIPT TO BE SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION. TO EVALUATE THE PROGRAM, A LONGITUDINAL MIXED-METHODS STUDY WILL EVALUATE HOW PARTICIPATION IN THE RESEARCH NETWORK AFFECTS STUDENT AND FACULTY OUTCOMES.